ABC says ‘Stay home, save gas’

Sept. 21 dubbed 'Nat'l Stay at Home Week'

ABC’s urging its viewers to conserve gas by staying indoors the week of Sept. 21 — it’s “National Stay at Home Week.”

The Alphabet’s marketing team dreamed up the holiday as a way to promote the start of the season. “National Stay at Home Week” not-so-coincidentally coincides with TV’s premiere week.

Consider it the flip side of the annual April event “TV Turnoff Week” — something the networks haven’t been as eager to embrace.

The promo spots and companion website take a tongue-in-cheek approach to the whole idea that audiences can save money and help the environment by staying home that week and watching TV instead.

“It’s a fun way to package and present our premiere week and make it uniquely ABC as well,” said ABC marketing exec VP Mike Benson.

Network will continue to promote new and returning series via individual spots. But with just two new skeins premiering on ABC this fall, Benson said there was a little more room to also include a few broader, umbrella campaigns like “Stay at Home Week.”

The Alphabet web has also unveiled its first network branding campaign in several years (since its famed “Yellow” spots earlier this decade). New spots tout ABC’s primetime, news, latenight and daytime blocks, combined with its “Start here” tagline and a remix of the Earth, Wind & Fire tune “September.”

“It celebrates the stars and the shows on the network in a way we haven’t been able to do before,” Benson said.